We're partnering with a well-established, privately owned business on a newly shaped Finance Manager hire — a genuine opportunity to make your mark and build something that lasts.This isn't a maintain-the-status-quo role. The business is at an exciting stage of growth and needs someone who can bring structure, financial discipline, and commercial clarity to a function that's ready to evolve.What you'll be doing: Designing and owning a formal budgeting process from the ground up — working with department heads to build bottom-up budgets, challenge assumptions, and consolidate into a company-wide financial plan Leading project financial control — overseeing costing, margin tracking, and forecasting across the business, working closely with project managers to drive accountability Providing meaningful commercial insight to senior leadership — translating numbers into decisions on investment, cost management, and project viability Improving financial systems and reporting — including better use of Sage and the introduction of clearer dashboards and standardised processes Supporting key finance processes including month-end, VAT, and audit preparation Leading and developing a small team What we're looking for: Strong background in financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting Proven experience building or improving budgeting processes — ideally in an SME or scaling business Commercially minded with the confidence to influence senior stakeholders Hands-on experience with Sage 200 Solid understanding of revenue recognition, VAT, and audit requirements CIMA, ACCA or equivalent qualification (or part-qualified with strong experience) Pragmatic, collaborative, and comfortable balancing the detail with the bigger pictureIf you've thrived in an environment where things needed building rather than just maintaining — and you want real ownership of a finance function — this could be exactly the right next step.